Travel Journal: New Zealand Pt. 2
13th February 2020
Harry nearly drove off without half the bus this morning. He also left 3 girls behind because he’d booked too many people on… we were in trusting hands!
We drove to Waitomo, stopping off at some strange places in between and arrived at Hotel Kiwi Paka. This would be our first and last private hostel room of the trip, a rare treat which I reflect back on like a fond but distant memory. What was the interior design like? Terrible! But did this matter? Absolutely not! Two single beds with a tonne of space to unpack and then repack your bag = HEAVEN. This kind of freedom whilst backpacking comes once in a blue moon I tell you.
So, top tip, whenever you have the space to get organised, carpe diem.
Sort that bag out, trust me.
Once we’d dropped off our stuff, we took a shuttle down to our first activity, the Black Abyss Water Rafting experience. When I signed up for this, I was expecting water rafting… potentially at night or something; an extreme form of white water rafting? NOPE. NAH. NO. It was NOT this. Couldn’t be further from it actually.
Fortunately for me, I don’t have a problem with teeny-tiny confined spaces underground, but it was actually a 5-hour caving trip. FIVE FLPPIN’ HOURS. Abseiling, zip-lining and swimming through a glowworm studded cave with a few waterfall climbs in-between and lots and lots of falling over.
This would probably be some peoples worst nightmare, but it was actually pretty fun! It was also where our group of four (Myself, Elle, Eneas and Hugo) became 6. We met Ramco and Lee at the site, where we were all forced to become instantly close and see each other at our very worst. Tight, smelly suits, multi-coloured helmets, mis-matched gloves and shredded-up wellie boots.
Imagine going on a first date here? Bloody hell, it’s a no from me.
But the great thing was that none of us gave a rats arse about what we looked like because we were all too busy falling on our faces. I think it actually brought us closer.
So down we went, abseiling into the abyss and jumping into a pool of freezing cold water, floating around in rubber rings whilst looking at some worms.
Our guide actually took some photos of us whilst we were down their too, but they didn’t quite turn out how we expected. This was what we thought they’d look like (and what it actually looked like to us):
Instead, I looked like Gollum in every single photo, straggled hair and all. In a few shots you probably would have mistaken me for a black bin bag drifting around… the insulated cushion of air was really doing me favours.
You also had to pay $50 for them, so sadly you will never get to experience the horror of seeing those photos flash up on a giant screen in reception for all to see. Just like the caves, those pictures will never see the light of day.
But overall it was so SO cool. It was like something out of Avatar.
My only few criticisms of the experience were that it was very expensive and probably a bit long… I mean, 5 hours? Your day is gone. The grass has grown. The seasons have changed.
It also didn’t help that it was the nicest day outside when we entered the cave. We came back up at 8pm in the pitch black, deprived of our daily dose of vitamin D.
That’s why, if caving’s your jam, do the Black Labyrinth experience. It’s $100 cheaper and it’s 3 hours.
And if you don’t like caving but want to keep your own clothes on and see some glow worms, pay $50 to do a boat tour.
When we got back to the hostel we took extremely long showers, cleaned up, had dinner (pesto pasta – classic) and headed to Tomo bar down the road to drink with the locals and everyone else on the bus. All in all, a successful evening, and a not so successful morning the following day.
14th February 2020
Early the next morning we were forced onto a hot, sticky bus to head to Rotorua. On the way, we stopped off at the Karangahake Gorge Gold Mines. We didn’t see any gold sadly, but the fresh air worked its magic, although I didn’t manage the swim (none of us did). I know swimming is supposed to cure a hangover, but not this time. Nothing could save us.
However, what didn’t help, was arriving in Rotorua, the town that’s famous for its geothermal hot springs. Sounds delightful I hear you say! No. What they don’t warn you about is the smell.
IT STINKS OF EGG. Like, really bad rotten egg, and it clings to your clothes for quite some time. I’m talking a couple of washes worth.
We were dropped off at the Tamaki Máori village ticket office to sort out our plans for the evening, whilst Harry took the others for their early drop-off (you could opt in to do a day/night experience for $110 more).
After we sorted out money, we sat and waited for hippy Harry for an hour, problem being that he was only supposed to be 15 minutes. So, instead of waiting any longer, we walked to Base Hostel to check in and asked if our bags had been dropped off, which they hadn’t – shock horror! They called Harry and he’d gone to his lodgings for the evening and forgotten to pick us up and drop off our bags, which really didn’t surprise me. He was the most chilled out guy, but maybe sometimes he was a little too chill.
So we waited by the pool and sunbathed whilst he drove back. He was super late again, leaving us 10 minutes to get ready for the Maori Cultural Experience, but we just about made it in time, so it was all good.
It was also a nice way to end a slightly chaotic day – chilled out and filled with lots and lots of tasty food.
I would definitely recommend the cultural experience if you want to learn more about Maori history and their traditions + the hangi buffet dinner and performances throughout the evening are also pretty cool. It does feel a little bit commercialised, but it’s still worth checking out!
xoxo
The Atomic Blonde
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The Atomic Blonde
